Roumania Past and Present

Roumania Past and Present

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Title: Roumania Past and Present
Author: James Samuelson
Release Date: April 24, 2006 [EBook #18240]
Language: English
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[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF CURTEA D'ARDGES.]

ROUMANIA PAST AND PRESENT
BY
JAMES SAMUELSON
Of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS (BY E. WELLER), PORTRAITS,
AUTOTYPE AND OTHER FULL-PAGE PLATES, AND
NUMEROUS PLANS AND WOODCUTS (BY G. PEARSON),
CHIEFLY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY F. DUSCHEK, BUCAREST
Post Tenebras Lux
LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1882
All rights reserved

PREFACE.
There is no country in Europe which at the present time possesses
greater interest for Englishmen than does the Kingdom of Roumania,
and there is none with whose present state and past history, nay, with
whose very geographical position, they are less familiar.
Only about nine years since Consul-General Green, the British
representative there, reported to his Government as follows: 'Ignorance
seems to extend even to the geographical position of Bucharest. It is
not surprising that letters directed to the Roumanian capital should
sometimes travel to India in search of Bokhara, but there can be no
excuse for the issue of a writ of summons by one of the superior law
courts of the British metropolis, directed to Bucharest in the Kingdom
of Egypt, as I have known to happen.' The reader may perhaps attribute
such mistakes as these to our insular ignorance of geography, or to the
fact that the proverbial blindness of justice prevented her from
consulting the map before issuing her process; but the fact remains, that

notwithstanding the occurrence of a great war subsequent to the date
above specified, which completely changed the map of Europe,
wherein Roumania took a very prominent part and England assisted at
the settlement, there are few intelligent readers in this country who
could say off-hand where precisely Roumania is situated.
And yet, as already remarked, the country possesses an absorbing
interest for us as a nation. Placed, to a large extent through English
instrumentality, as an independent kingdom, of daily increasing
influence, between Russia and Turkey, for whom she served for
centuries as a bone of contention, she is now a formidable barrier
against the aggressions of the stronger power upon her weaker
neighbour, and it is satisfactory to reflect that, so far, the blood and
money of England have not flowed in vain. Then, again, the question of
the free navigation of the great stream that serves as her southern
boundary is at present occupying the serious consideration of many
leading European statesmen, and the solution of the Danubian difficulty
will materially affect our trade with the whole of Eastern Europe;
whilst the peaceable creation of a peasant proprietary in Roumania
about sixteen years since, and the advantages which have accrued to
her from this social and political reform, present features of peculiar
interest for those who favour the establishment of a similar class of
landholders in Ireland.
In treating of these two questions, I have laboured under the great
disadvantage of not being able to follow current events. It is understood
that the Danubian difficulty will be settled on the plan, referred to in
the text, suggested by Austria for her own advantage, with certain
modifications, having for their object the limitation of her
preponderance. My readers will be able to judge for themselves, after
reading the brief review of the question, and the references to our own
commercial relations with the countries bordering on the Danube in the
third and fifth chapters, whether such a settlement is likely to be final.
For myself I cannot believe that any solution will be permanently
satisfactory which interferes with the jurisdiction of Roumania in her
own waters.

As to the land question, it calls up some awkward reflections when its
history is contrasted with recent and passing events in Ireland. So long
as the conquerors in Roumania endeavoured to solve the problem, their
efforts were unavailing. At the Convention of Balta-Liman between
Russia and Turkey, where 'coercion' was coupled with 'remedial
measures,' an ineffectual attempt was made to ameliorate the wretched
condition of the peasantry on the old lines of feudalism; but it was not
until the country became autonomous and the legitimate representatives
of the people